The Hawks (21-28) had a chance to move into sole possession of
seventh place in the Eastern Conference but instead head into
the All-Star break on a four-game slide and tied with New Jersey
(23-30) and Philadelphia (23-30) for the eighth and final spot.

"We needed it," Okafor said. "We wanted to break the losing
streak and come off before the All-Star break with a win. (We
needed it) just for ourselves to prove that we can go out there
and do it."

Charlotte's Jeff McInnis sank the game-winning basket with just
under a minute to play, but it was Okafor who led the way. A 55
percent free throw shooter on the season, Okafor connected on
8-of-10 attempts in the game, including a pair in overtime which
knotted the score at 98.

"The shot was there so I just went in and made my little
floater," McInnis said. "I've been struggling with it all year
so it was good it went down."

Joe Johnson missed a jumper in the lane on Atlanta's final
possession.

"Tonight, we played not to lose instead of playing to win,"
Johnson said. "We stopped being aggressive in the fourth
quarter. When the Bobcats went into their zone, it hurt us, and
on defense we couldn't get any stops."

The Hawks went ahead, 98-96, in the overtime on back-to-back
3-pointers by Johnson and Tyronn Lue, but were unable to score
on their final four possessions.

After Johnson had given Atlanta an 86-78 lead, Charlotte mounted
a 12-2 run to pull ahead, 90-88, with 40 seconds left in
regulation.

"We just had to tough it out," Okafor said. "We just knew that
this is one that we had to get and that we should get. We just
found a way to do it."

Okafor scored six points in the spurt and Jason Richardson's
layup gave the Bobcats the lead on a putback of a missed jumper
by Raymond Felton.

Lue quickly answered for Atlanta to knot the score again at
90-90 with 28 seconds left in the fourth.

Richardson was fouled with 6.8 seconds to play and calmly sank
another pair of free throws to give Charlotte the lead again.

"We have a lot of fight left and an opportunity to make the
playoffs," Richardson said. "But we have to figure out a way to
win on the road."

The Bobcats appeared to have Al Horford stopped on the left wing
on Atlanta's last possession of regulation, but he found
Anthony Johnson open underneath. Johnson was fouled and sank
his free throws with one second left to send the game into
overtime tied at 92-92.

The Bobcats took an early 15-11 lead, but Atlanta went ahead
with an 18-4 run in the opening quarter. Lue led the Hawks
early and scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half.

The Hawks built a 14-point lead in the second quarter after Acie
Law IV capped a 7-0 run for a 47-33 lead en route to a 51-39
edge at the intermission.

Johnson scored a game-high 23 points while Lue had a season-best
19 for the Hawks. Josh Childress did not play after returning
to Atlanta on Wednesday for an MRI exam on his hyperextended
right knee.

"Hopefully we can bounce back on this West Coast trip," Johnson
said, "but we haven't had any success on the road at all this
year. It's going to be tough, but hopefully everybody can get
away and clear their minds and come back ready."

Felton finished with 22 points and Richardson had 20 for
Charlotte, which again was without leading scorer Gerald Wallace
due to a right foot sprain.